## **Swindon Sports Forum networking event/ Consultation & AGM 28[th] Nov 2024, Moredon Sporting Hub** 

## **Appendix 1 Attendance list Appendix 2 Presentation slides** 


## **Introduction/Welcome – Gerry Hannon (GH) , Chair** 

GH welcomed everyone from Sports clubs and physical activity providers and especially new newcomers and explained what the Swindon Sports Forum is and what we do. 

- Voluntary organisation to support sports clubs operating in Swindon . 

- a registered Charity 

- 4 aspects of the SSF 

1. **Advocacy –** representing the interests of sport and sports club at policy level. 

2. **Capacity development. –** helping to resource clubs through funding and training. 

3. **Extending and stimulating participation in sport –** through project funding 

4. **Communication -** with our members and signposting them to advice and support. 

## **1. Place Based Project  - Gladys Barr (Secretary)** 

At the last meeting we were told about this project by Stuart Arthur from WASP (refer to mins of 2/9/24).  In summary. 

- Sport England not seeing rise in physical activity levels despite their investment. New strategy to address 

- 'Place Based' programme is a 4-year project for target areas and population groups to raise activity levels in 7 areas of Swindon where health and social need is greatest 

- Project is led by WASP. Bid has to be submitted by end March 25 but funding is not guaranteed at this stage. 

- The delivery must come from the community need . Consultation led by Voluntary Action Swindon  - To seek the views of Swindon residents living in the identified areas. This is currently going on at moment. 

- Refer to slides 4-11 for detail 

- Lewis Bird (Swindon BC Public Health explained the reason why the 7 areas have been identified – refer to slide 9) 

- Carol Willis, Terry Johnson from VAS were introduced. They. 

   - Gave an outline of what VAS does – slide 13 

   - Requested that attendance complete the Asset mapping form which they brought to the meeting 

   - Explained they are currently hosting ‘Community Conversations’ discussion session in each location to identify local strengths. 

   - Are collecting information through the  ‘Standard Place Tool’ surveys to gather holistic views of the area. Attendees were asked to complete the survey if they live/deliver in one of the areas. The survey can be found here Placed based – 

   - community surveys Voluntary Action Swindon 

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## _**Questions/comments**_ 

Will some of the funding be used to refurbish the Oasis? – No for many reasons – political hot potato, cost and this isn’t what this fund is about 

Swindon School of gymnastics explained that they are about to loss the premises where they operate due to roof issues. 

Robins Football club – would like to develop wider community programmes at Buckhurst field development with new pavilion opening in 2025. Awareness of youth issues, large Goan community 

Attendees were split into tables and for 10 mins were asked to think about what barriers they were seeing in their delivery. 

Feedback – Cost/Poverty, Lack of parental guidance/habit in youth, Access/lack of transport were common themes 

## **Swindon Sports Forum AGM** 

## **1. Chairs report** 

Changing social and political context: from being a subgroup in the 1980's of Thamesdown District Council 'Arts and Recreation Dept.to being a voluntary organisation with a steady annual £20k per annum via the CIF from Swindon BC ... to today, a charitable organisation with challenges to overcome due to loss of guaranteed revenue and political/social crisis 

## The Crises 

## Swindon BC 

- disinvestment in leisure centres and sports development 

- outsourcing/'asset transfer' of leisure centres in 2014/15 

- more difficult to influence, loss of facilities. 

- SBC support/servicing to Sport Forum has gone. 

- Community Initiative Fund removal (£20k pa) and implications 

## National environment 

- Sport England policy and change of direction of resources from Sport to Health,  with an emphasis now on increasing participation in the inactive target groups. 

- Covid pandemic/Cost of Living 

## **SSF achievements in 2024** 

- Attended all the Get Swindon Active Meetings 

- Attended the Place based Funding Leadership programme 2-day training in Oct 24 

- Supported the Save the Oasis Campaign in advisory capacity/attended the recent Oasis consultation 

- Updated the member database and communicated regularly 

- Ran 3 networking meetings and increased the numbers attending 

- Revised our Business Plan for 2024 – trying to address challenges that clubs are facing. 

- Gave out £12k in grants (Neil will update in his report) 

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- Ran a Funding support programme with Remedy sport to support 10 clubs to apply for funding (ongoing). 

- Secured £23,900 through the Postcode Lottery to support Women’s cycling participation programme at Moredon Sporting Hub 

- Applied to the Peter Harrison foundation for £29k to support disabled participation and to the Movement for Good fund for £16k  cover our running costs for the next two years (both unsuccessful) but the former did lever £15k from British Cycling 

## **Into 2025** 

- We have significant challenges due to lack to committee members and need skills such as social marketing, content writing, fundraising to run the charity. Trying to address the challenges that clubs face is dependent on having more people to help 

- New annual grants programme – need to change the grant process due to the reduction in revenue funding. (Neil will cover this in his report) 

- Place Based funding programme – supporting WASP and the Parishes with next phase 

## **2. Treasurer’s report – Sue Gravell** 

## **Sue presented the following report. Closing balance £39,889.15** 

|**Swindon Sports Forum**|**Swindon Sports Forum**|**Swindon Sports Forum**|**Swindon Sports Forum**|**Swindon Sports Forum**|**Swindon Sports Forum**|**Swindon Sports Forum**|**Swindon Sports Forum**|**Swindon Sports Forum**|**Swindon Sports Forum**|**Swindon Sports Forum**|**Swindon Sports Forum**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Statement of Income and Expenditure for theyear to 31.10. 2024**||||||||||||
|||||||||||||
||**Income 22-23**||**Details**||**Income 23-24**||**Expenditure 22-23**||**Details**||**Expenditure 23-24**|
||**£**||||**£**||**£**||||**£**|
|||||||||||||
|||||||||||||
||||Swindon Borough<br>Council|||||||||
|||||||||||||
||||Grants||||16,275.99<br>£||Grants Awarded||12,193.75<br>£|
||||Grants withdrawn|||||||||
|||||||||||||
||£149.24||Bank Interest||613.03<br>£|||||||
|||||||||||||
||£75.00||Bank Comp.||||||Remedy Inc. Ltd||6,141.30<br>£|
|||||||||||||
||||Post Code Lottery||23,900.00<br>£||14.53<br>£||Refreshments||72.87<br>£|
|||||||||||||
||||||||157.47<br>£||Insurance||159.60<br>£|
|||||||||||||
||||Funding Payments||450.00<br>£||||Post Code Lottery||23,900.00<br>£|
|||||||||||||
||||||||||Web Site||334.92<br>£|
|||||||||||||
||||||||||Facebook|||
|||||||||||||
||||||||76.24<br>£||Sundries||4.50<br>£|
|||||||||||||
||||||||||WASP||420.00<br>£|
|||||||||||||
||**£224.24**||**Total Income**||**24,963.03**<br>**£**||**16,524.23**<br>**£**||**Total Expenditure**||**43,226.94**<br>**£**|
|||||||||||||
||||balance b/f||58,153.16<br>£|||||||
||||Plus income||24,963.03<br>£|||||||
||||Less expenditure||43,226.94<br>£|||||||
||||||||**Nationwide £32349.26**|||||
||||**balance c/f**||**39,889.25**<br>**£**||**Lloyds      £11436.11**|||||
|||||||less u/c chqs|**3,896.12**<br>**£**|||||
||||||||**39,889.25**<br>**£**|||||



The Chair asked for vote for approval of accounts - Cheryl Heyne approved 

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## **3. Grant officer’s report – Neil Bromley** 

£12, 193.15 given in grant this year to the clubs below to help more children/adults/athletes/participants get more from their sport: 

Penhill Amateur Boxing Evoke Gymnastics Swindon School Of Gymnastics 

Swindon Croquet club Lawn Bowls – West End, Supermarine, Swindon Bowls Swindon Lightening Cheerleading Tap dancing 

Individual grants were given to. Gymnastics – World Championships Tap dancing – World Championships Fencing – 4 National Great Britain Finalists Taekwondo – 2 National Finalists Roller derby skating 

41 awarded given out to local young athletes through the GLL foundation 

- As it is our year end, **grants for 2024 have now closed** . The Grants Committee will meet early January 2025 to review the grants process for 2025. This will be reviewed and signed off by the Steering Group . 

- 2025 Grant information will be available in early February – please contact Neil Bromley Grants Officer when you are ready to apply: neilg.bromley@ntlworld.com 07527 546164 

- GLL Foundation grants  GLL Sport Foundation - Athlete Support Programme – applications open in December so get applying 

- If athletes live within Wiltshire County Council there are also sport grants available here: Supporting athletes - Wiltshire Council 

## **4. Officer Elections** 

All officers stood down from their positions. Becky Cox kindly asked for proposers and seconders for the posts. All willing to stand again except for Ian Jankinson who was the outgoing Vice Chair. 

||**Name**|**Proposed by**|**Seconded by**|
|---|---|---|---|
|**Chair**|Gerry Hannon|Wendy White|Paul Rodgers|
|**Vice Chair**|No nominations|Position Vacant||
|**Secretary**|Gladys Barr|tbc  Alastair Bartlam|Ady Short|
|**Treasurer**|Sue Gravell|Cheryl Heyne|Dave Sutton|
|**Grant officer**|Neil Bromley|Grahame Lee|Dennis May|



Sam James and Dave Sutton both agreed to join the committee 

Close – Gerry thanked all for attending. 

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**Appendix 1 - Attendance List 28th November 2024** 

||**Name**|**Surname**|**Organisation**|
|---|---|---|---|
|1|Ady|Short|Swindon Wheelers|
|2|Alastair|Bartlam|Swindon Wheelers|
|3|Becky|Cox|Swindon Cycle campaign|
|4|Carol|Willis|VoluntaryAction Swindon|
|5|Colin|Offer|Wanborough Parish Council|
|6|Cheryl|Heyne|Swindon North End BC|
|7|Dan|Morley|Swindon Triathlon Club|
|8|Dan|McAteer|Matt Fiddes Martial Arts & MF Dance|
|9-11|Daniel|Mounsdon +2|Swindon Softball League|
|12|Dave|Sutton|Supermarine Bowls Club|
|13|Dennis|May|Swindon North End BC|
|14|Eli|Ridgeway|Swindon School of Gymnastics|
|15|Gerry|Hannon|Swindon Sports Forum|
|16|Gladys|Barr|Swindon Sports Forum|
|17|Grahame|Lee|StepOut Swindon|
|18|Joseph|Walker|Swindon School of Gymnastics|
|19|John|Ellis|Swindon Westend Bowls Club|
|20|Lewis|Bird|Swindon BC|
|21|Lyn|Fox|Town Gardens Bowls club|
|22|Neil|Bromley|Swindon Sword Fencingclub|
|23|Paul|Ashman|PacVelo cyclingclub|
|24-25|Paul|Rodgers +1|Penhill bowls club|
|26|Paul|Wainwright|Robins Football club|
|27|Pete|Fox|Town Gardens Bowls club|
|28|Rachel|Symes|Cotswold Veldrijden|
|29|Roy|Worman|Haydon Wick Parish Council|
|30|Sam|James|Inclusfit|
|31|Sue|Gravell|Swindon Sports Forum|
|32|Terry|Johnson|VoluntaryAction Swindon|
|33|Wendy|White|Swindon Croquet club|
||**Apologies**|||
||Charlie|Marillier|Swindon Barbells|
||Daniel||Swindon Cricket Club|
||John|Flew|Wanborough Bowls Club.|
||Phil|Heads|Royal Wootton Bassett Volleyball Club|
||Sarah|Smith|Swindon ice figure skatingclub|
||Stuart|Arthur|WASP|
||Abby|Jones|SAM|
||Howard|Moscrop|Swindon Harriers Athletics club|
||Kerry|Reynolds|Swindon school ofgymnastics|
||Steve|Bennett|Swindon Storm|
||Wesley|Newman|Swindon Shock Wheelchair BB Club|
||Agnieska|Wojcik|Fitness Instructor|
||Emilie|People|Line Dancing|



**Appendix 2 Presentation slides – attached** 

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Appendix 3- Signed accounts
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